sess he foiled every attack, and was enabled to remain at his post, through the good hand of God upon him, who had much work for him there. It does not belong to the purpose of this paper to detail the origin, progress, operations, and usefulness of that astonishing institution, called The Orphan House, at Halle-one of the most illustrious examples of what one man can accomplish, through faith, prayer, indomitable perseverance, large practical wisdom, and glowing Christian benevolence,—an institution with which Franke's name will be for ever associated. Nor, having been now so long held back from the more peculiar subject of this paper, can we swell this portion of it with any detailed account of the closing scenes of his bright career. The schools which he set up were models of the union of scientific with godly training, and the tracts which he wrote expressly for them four times a-year, to be distributed after the public examinations, are fine specimens of his power of adapting himself to all classes. His interest in the missionary cause was warm; and Frederic IV. of Denmark having, in 1705, founded a college for training missionaries to be sent to his East Indian territories, and applied for students to Franke, our professor had the honour of selecting the first two Malabar missionaries, Henry Plütschau and the well-known Bartholomew Ziegenbalg. He collected and transmitted contributions for the mission; procured it a mission press; generally selected the missionaries required; corresponded regularly with them as long as he lived, and superintended the periodical publication of the "History of the Evangelical Missions in the East for the Conversion of the Heathen," which still continues to issue from Halle. For every thing, in fact, pertaining to the kingdom of God, Franke had a ready and large heart. But the news of the death of his beloved friend and father, Spener, in 1705-whom he had revisited seven years before with great delight and mutual benefit-gave him a shock which, with his growing infirmity, occasioned by a life of almost unparalleled activity, rendered a change of scene necessary. Three months were devoted by him to travelling, in the course of which he not only preached every where with the greatest acceptance, but was welcomed and parted with in places where he had been opposed, as one on a triumph. On his return he resumed his duties, till, after some interruptions, he was finally laid aside in 1727, and in June of that year he was taken up to that Master whom he had so unweariedly served, at the age of sixty-four.*

We alluded in our opening paragraphs to the unsteady and

* See Guerike's Life of Franke, from which the foregoing particulars have been for the most part taken. We have used Mr Jackson's translation. (1837.)

dangerous features of the pietistic school. In so doing we referred not to Spener and Franke themselves, but to the character of the movement as it was taken up by others, and to the shape which in spite of these eminent leaders it assumed. The contrast was so great and so manifest between the biblical and spiritual theology of Halle and the reigning system of the Lutheran Church, that multitudes in their zeal for the former went beyond all decency in decrying the latter; pronouncing it a mass of Babylonish corruption, withdrawing from all public ordinances, unless when dispensed by spiritual ministers, setting undue value upon the private meetings, which had been established, not in rivalry of the public means, but for supplementary edification, laying claim to unusual insight into the mind of the Spirit and even to special revelations, and depreciating not only study, and learning, and theological training, but even the written Word, in comparison of the inward light with which they deemed themselves favoured-not to speak of the wild speculations on prophecy which, in the case of many, accompanied all this. To some extent things had shown a tendency in this direction ere Franke came upon the field; but as the movement advanced the evil developed itself, and firmly though Spener and Franke tried to check it, and earnestly and honestly as they protested their disapproval of it, they were unable to stem the torrent, and at times seemed to stand appalled at it. In the latter part of his life, indeed, we find Franke mourning over the comparatively dead formality into which the movement had degenerated. It ran, in fact, to seed, and resolved itself ultimately into three primary elements. What was sound and wholesome was preserved to the Church, from which its originators never dreamt of detaching it; and as such, its influence for good was felt in many ways and for a long time, nay, is telling for good at this hour. For the rest, Enthusiasm and incipient Rationalism shared it between them. The former has always found a congenial home in Germany, whether in the form of a dreamy mysticism, an erratic fanaticism, or a speculative pantheism, as its whole mental history shows. The latter is a reaction from stark scholastic orthodoxy; though not quite directly. Pietism in its wholesome stage first opened men's eyes to the worthlessness of the reigning system; then the superiority of a holy life to all mere speculative opinions was so urged as in effect to depreciate all objective truth; and then, a piety of the feelings generated and maintained in a great measure independently of the written Word, settled down, especially among studious young men, into cold and vapid forms of sentiment. A historical and scientific method having in Halle superseded the scholastic, superior students gave themselves enthusiastically to historical criticism, philological pursuits, biblical

exegesis, fresh and free investigation on every theological question. Disgusted with the importance attached to the length and frequency of the prayers and meetings which all were required to observe, and to set phrases after they had degenerated into cant, a terrible revulsion commenced, and it was found that some who flattered themselves they were preparing a spiritual ministry were in reality sowing dragon's teeth. Semler, to whom the early rationalism of Germany owes more than to any other, and who was himself the most melancholy illustration of what we say, lets us into these scenes and their operations at Halle, where he studied, in the first part of his singular “Autobiography." ." But to what are these excesses and deflections to be ascribed? Alas! to the proud distance, or rather the bitter hostility, of the old orthodox party. By welcoming, or even ultimately falling in with the movement which Spener and Franke originated, and which as it came from them might have been made the means of a silent moral revolution and revival of the Church, they would have drawn off the elements both of enthusiasm and rationalism, or rendered them comparatively innocuous. But by holding up the brightest lights which had arisen upon their Church since the Reformation in all the blackest colours, and those who adhered to them as "a sect instituted and promoted by them for the ruin of the Lutheran Church," they brought that Church themselves to the brink of destruction, and were the true parents of that frightful rationalism from which Germany suffered so much for more than half a century. "Indifferentism," says Niebuhr, "took its rise from the revolting orthodox party, who persecuted the mystics (pietists) Spener, Franke, &c., in a truly popish spirit, carrying the influence of priestly claims to an extravagance that no Capuchin could exceed." May the Churches read aright these appalling facts! Let them take warning from this, not to rest in a traditional orthodoxy, or shut themselves up within the preserve of even the exactest forms of truth and polity, while the spirit once breathed into them is departing, or haply already fled; and above all, let them beware of scowling upon the efforts of their more spiritual men to revive and refresh it, merely because they happen not to bear the image and superscription of ancient usage: let them rather open their generous bosom to all wholesome influences, from whatever quarter; and then, even if any thing ungenial should be inhaled, the vis medicatrix of a sound and healthy constitution will throw it off, while all

*D. Joh. Sal. Semler's Lebensbeschreibung von ihm selbst abgefasst. Halle, 178182. No doubt his statements are to be taken with some allowance, which Pusey in referring to them perhaps overlooks; but the candid distinction which he makes between some and others, and the corroborative testimony of subsequent historians, are enough to show that there is little if any exaggeration.

† Schelwig, quoted by Pusey, p. 100.

Life and Letters, &c., 1852. (12th July 1812).

that is pure will assimilate and nourish the system. This, under God, is for Churches the elixir of life. Without this wisdom they are a prey to every deadly influence from beneath; as, in Germany, and alas! in countries nearer home, was too clearly seen during the last century.

But it is now high time to come to BENGEL. No stirring incidents marked this man's career. Nearly thirty years of his life were spent in a sphere comparatively humble. But precious was the fruit of his labours in those who received from him their theological training, and caught his genial tone; most salutary, in the then deliquescent state of Lutheran theology, was that union of accurate learning and Christian simplicity, of spirituality and sobriety, of soundness in the faith, with independent investigation and breadth of study, which distinguished both his teaching and his writings; and while not a few who then attracted a larger measure of public attention, and for a time exercised much more influence, possess now little more than a historical interest, as links in the great chain of events which marked and moulded the times, the critical and expository labours of Bengel are for all time -we speak not of his prophetical computations, of which by and by-and are at this day as fresh as when they first issued from the Tübingen press.*

In 1687, John Albert Bengel was born at a small town in Würtemberg. Like Spener and Franke, the dawnings of grace in his soul were too early to be traced. Like the Baptist, he seems to have been filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. Before he was six years old, when he lost his excellent clerical father, he had many tender impressions and lively communion with God. Under favourable training, his religious impressions were gradually deepened and matured; and while excelling at school, he showed an uncommon love of the Bible, good books, and the Church hymns. Though not without experience of the usual temptations of school life as he advanced, his conscience was kept graciously tender and uncorrupted. By close application he early distinguished himself, particularly in the classical department, and had at times to tear himself away from Cicero, lest his enthusiasm should run to a sinful excess. Yet along with this his soul, after a season of spiritual anxiety, was filled with affecting discoveries

*The printed Memoirs of Bengel's Life and Writings are pretty numerous, but the fullest and most authentic is Dr Burk's, one of his descendants, which first appeared in 1831, again in 1835, and of which an English translation, by the Rev. R. F. Walker, was published in 1837. The work is not well arranged, and scarcely does justice to the materials in the biographer's possession, from the too limited object which he prescribed to himself. From it, however, we shall draw the less literary particulars of the following sketch.

and experiences on his first partaking of the Lord's Supper. At sixteen he began the study of philosophy and the higher branches of philology; and though he had but one year of this course, instead of the usual two, he was entrusted by his professor to prepare for him materials in Latin for a treatise on Spinozism. At the taking of his master's degree, one of the divinity professors, having to hold a disputation preparatory to his own doctor's degree, did Bengel the honour to select him as his respondent. For the former professor he further prepared the materials of a Church History, and the latter employed him to punctuate for him, according to the Hebrew accents, a new edition of Luther's Bible-high distinction this, and, as he afterwards felt, admirable training for his future work. But with all this, his soul, instead of waxing lean, as is too often the case in such studies, was making steady and decided progress, aided by two important advantages. One was the spiritual tone of the divinity professors. "Dr Christopher Reuchlin," said he afterwards, "was a truly noble character. His lectures, particularly those he gave after morning prayersindeed, whatever things he uttered at any time-were refreshing like the morning dew, full of power and full of life. . . . . At returning from his lectures, one felt as if returning from a sermon full of unction and energy. His manner was as instructive as it was persuasive and stirring; and whoever came to college in right earnest about practical religion was soon made fervent in spirit by his means. He was clearly, in the Scripture sense,strong in spirit,' and was instant and very affectionate in prayer. It was always profitable to get near him." Bengel had the privilege of much familiar intercourse with this blessed man, who laid himself out indeed for his students, and as he was removed soon after to glory, the students drew up a memoir of what they witnessed of his closing labours, Bengel writing the elegy.* But Bengel had the farther advantage of an association of like-minded students, who, after the example of Leipzig, Halle, &c., had formed themselves into a society for mutual encouragement in the ways of the Lord and spiri

We have heard from those who studied under the late Dr Macgill of Glasgow, that without great talents or attainments, there was a tone about himself and his lectures which irresistibly impressed and won the students, and that hundreds could testify through life how deeply they were indebted to that man of God for all that was most valuable in their ministry. The respected editor of the lectures and sermons of the late Professor Maclagan of Aberdeen (1853) speaks in his preface of the "kind of sacred awe with which his teaching impressed the minds of his students." What an encouragement to theological professors to dip their studies, labours, and exercises in the dew of the Spirit! This is the secret of strength. This transfigures theological learning, which else is a dry affair. It makes "the whole armour of God," as it is brought forth weapon by weapon, and the use of it described and taught to awed and eager students, "like the tower of David, builded for an armoury, whereon there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men."-(Cant. iv. 4.) Let us hold up the hands of those on whom so much of the spiritual prosperity of our Churches depends, and hold up our own hands in their behalf.